[Suggested music for reading this blog - "Reunited" by Peaches & Herb]
There is much from last week to cover, but it will have to wait for this far more important news.
I HAVE A KITCHEN!!!!
Not only that, but the infamous and ever-elusive sea shipment has now been delivered, so my camping experience (aside from the lighting issues) is pretty much over.
First, the kitchen. While I was able to pay the deposit for the kitchen via bank transfer, I was required to pay the balance in cash. This strikes me as unusual (and, from an internal controls perspective, a little bit horrifying), but apparently this is not entirely uncommon here. Of course, the bank isn't open here on weekends and there isn't one near the office, so my solution was to go to the ATM each of four days and withdraw the maximum allowed for my account - €1,000. Now, not unlike the US, ATMs generally aren't stocked with a bunch of large bills, so I was generally given a fistfull of €50 bills. And another fistful the next day and so on to the point where I felt like I had either robbed a convenience store or was a sitting target for robbery myself! Anyway, I gave him the kitchen guy my cash and the key and hoped for the best. I was gone from Tuesday until Thursday, so I entered with cautious optimism on Thursday night. It was there. As small as I suspected it would be, but quite nice. And the kitchen guy had even loaded my Coke Light into the new refrigerator so I was able to celebrate the moment. AND, best of all, the range hood has a light in it so there is now a little bit of light in the otherwise-dark kitchen. Woohoo!!! I was so excited I could hardly go to sleep on my little IKEA mattress.
Well, what a difference another day brings. The movers showed up a little bit before 8 AM. I stumbled upon the leader as I was on my way to buy some coffee. He hadn't run the doorbell, but was standing outside, so I asked him if he was with the moving company and indeed he was. This began a day of questions and answers in broken German/English on both sides, but he (Rolf)was a good sport. One of the questions was, "Um, where's the truck?" Well, there isn't a lot of room on my one-way street and most of the people who park on the street hadn't gone to work yet, so parking was an issue. Not to be deterred from my coffee, I asked him if he'd like to go with and I'd buy him a coffee. He went without a moment's hesitation, which amused me a bit, and also may have given me a bit of street cred in the corner bakery/coffee shop (not to be confused with Corner Bakery, my Chicago friends), where they don't seem particularly excited to endure my broken German.
Anyway, they finally found a way to park that only blocked the street a bit and the unloading began. I had received good counsel from someone to make sure that I unpacked as much as I could while the movers were still there as they would take the packing materials away which is otherwise a pain to get rid of. They had one guy on the truck (Detlef, which name of course reminded me of the basketball player, but I figured it would be bad form to mention that), another guy who moved the loaded carts into the building and up the elevator to my unit, and Rolf who carried the boxes (I appreciated that they didn't even ask if they could roll the cards across the hardwood floors) into my unit and started some of the setup. It was remarkably efficient and by the time they left at around 12:30, I had a dining room table, rugs rolled out, bed set up, kitchenware unpacked, and, perhaps most important of all, had been reunited with my Sarah Palin action figures.
One of the first things I unpacked was the Roomba, the vacuuming robot dealio. I had assumed (incorrectly) that the box in the middle of the cord would convert the power similar to my laptop cord, so all I had to do was plug it into an adapter. Not so much. Well, this left me with no vacuuming capabilities at home. Hmmm.... Who sells household appliances?? So I went across the street to visit my valentine, Barney. Alas, he was not there not was he scheduled to be in the following day. Doh! So I asked the woman who was helping me (only in German -- helpful, but she's no Barney), "Haben Sie ein vacuuming iRobot maschine.... [puzzled looks at the crazy American]...eine Roomba?" Ah, Roomba!!!! Of course. So she took me to a wall where the latest, greatest Roomba (the deluxe 580, which slices, dices and ginsu purees while keeping both floors and carpets pristine -- and which can be scheduled to clean even when you're away!). Sold! The cool thing is that I learned, with the assistance of my brother, that I can charge my 'old' Roomba on the same dock, though I'm wondering what the iRobots will do if they are both fighting for time in the same dock!
While I was waiting for the clerk to find one of the boxed Roombas in their warehouse, I looked around the store and was checking out the coffee machines. As I have mentioned before, coffee is a big deal here. And while I enjoy the coffee here, I don't really actually drink that much coffee, so I suspect that the beauty of the machines that freshly grind the beans before making each specialized cup would be a little more than what I need. And then I'd have to keep up with which coffee beans are for espresso drinks and which are for 'regular' coffee. That is way too much to figure out for 1-2 cups per day. Yet I never really was all that pleased with my little 'pod' coffee maker thing in the States. It was okay, but.... And I really want something that can steam/froth milk for a cappuccino or something sassy like that, which then significantly jacks up the price. Well, my new friends at EP Fischer introduced me to the Nespresso line of pod-like coffee, but they're tiny pods vacuum packed in brightly colored aluminum (or aluminium, if you prefer). And they had JUST the machine for me - the DeLonghi Lattissima EN 690. With a name like that, I am ready to be a barrista already! (https://secure.nespresso.com/precom/sima/fiche__NESPRESSO_DeLonghi_LATTISSIMA_EN690___D_F320_2_de_en.html)
Anyway, it has a special milk container that connects directly to the machine and a little spout that pours the steamed milk directly into your mug or other beverage container as it makes the coffee, rather than forcing you to have to steam and then mix them together. It is fascinating to watch. And the milk spout has an automatic cleaning mechanism so that it doesn't get all crusty and nasty. And then you just put the milk container into the refrigerator. Very cool. I could make coffee all day long just to see it work.
As if the day couldn't get any better, the Telekom guy came in the afternoon to hook up my phone service. While I am having difficulty configuring the router (all instructions are in German), the land line service works great. I have a special deal where I pay an additional €3.95/month for UNLIMITED calls to the U.S. and some other countries. How cool is that? So if you want to hear a direct blog, let me know and I'll give you a call sometime.
Finally, I should note that I have become a cooking fool now that I have my own pots and pans, , knives and cook books here and means to cook and bake. Friday night I made a new recipe for penne with cauliflower and leeks, which sounds a bit bland until you read the recipe and realize fresh chili peppers are also involved. Saturday night was a stir fry dealio with fresh mushrooms and more chili pepper action and which made enough for a small army. Last night was fresh tomato, basil and riccota rissoto, which is as tasty as it sounds and made enough for a LARGE army (there may be a small container cooling in my office window when I get to the office to post this). That recipe was my first oppotunity to use my new oven as it called for browning the fresh, crumbly ricotta cheese in the oven for 10 minutes. Normally, an instruction like 'Preheat oven to 350 degrees' is the easiest part of a recipe. Um, not when your oven has pictures for functions (which pictures make no sense other than the one with the light bulb), you're not exactly sure how many degrees centigrade 350 Fahrenheit translates to, and the kitchen dude only left the installation instructions for the oven and not operating instructions! Suffice it to say, though, common sense prevailed (I think) and the risotto turned out very well.
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